Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, today announced the 2017-18 ‘Purple-Pride’ Promotional Calendar of Game Night Events, Appearances and Special Giveaways.

The seventeenth season of professional hockey in Reading revolves around six major can’t miss ‘sell-out’ game night extravaganzas beginning with the season opening block party on October 21 and concluding thirty-six home games later on April 7, 2018, when we’ll say thank you to the best fans in hockey with our annual Fan Appreciation Night. In and around those six special “sell-out” nights, the Royals will present a number of our traditional fan favorite events and giveaways—along with a few special appearances from some current and soon-to-be Hall-of-Famers—this year.

This season’s year-long tribute to ‘Purple-Pride’ kicks off on Saturday, October 21, with what has become a fall tradition—the Royals’ Opening Day Block Party on Penn Street, which kicks off at 1:00 pm on the Penn Street corridor directly in front of Santander Arena. This year’s festivities, which will run right up to the opening of the Arena doors one hour before the opening faceoff at 4:00 pm, will include a command performance by local favorites “The Uptown Band”. To make sure that everyone is properly loosened up for that afternoon’s game against Adirondack Thunder, the Block Party will offer plenty of participatory fun and games for the entire family, as well as a wide selection of food and beverages. Met-Ed, a First Energy Company, who will make sure that every fan in attendance at the Royals home opener is properly attired with a Purple-Pride t-shirt.

Saturday’s pre-game festivities on the outdoor stage on Penn Street—as well as inside the Arena as part of the pre-game festivities—will also include a taste of the Royals’ latest promotional series when Cody Tyler kicks off the “Royals Have Talent” competition, a season-long talent contest held at six different Royals’ games over the season that will culminate the Grand Finale on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, when the Royals’ will crown the team’s “most talented fan”. To spice things up at each of the Royals Have Talent events this season, the team’s long-time partner Rieck’s Printing will be giving away a specially-designed four player card set, which fans can get properly ‘authenticated’ at the corresponding post-game autograph sessions at those games with the Royals’ players.

The early season Purple-Pride action doesn’t stop after the season opener, however, as the very next day—Sunday, October 22, 2017—the Royals will take on the Wheeling Nailers in our first of seven Sunday home games this season, many of which will feature the return of the all-time-fan-favorite “Dollar Dogs” promotion in which hot dogs at Santander Arena are just a buck. In this first Sunday game, the first 2000 fans will be able to add to what we hope will be a burgeoning collection of Purple-Pride memorabilia with a special limited-edition puck courtesy of our good friends at Deibler Dental.

The Royals will close October with a scare—and open November with a salute—as the team hosts our annual Haunted Hockey Halloween Celebration on Sunday, October 29, 2017, when the boys will be decked out in their scariest specialty jersey of the year, which fans can purchase through an on-line auction conducted through the Royals’ team store. For the next home game, on Veterans’ Day (Saturday, November 11, 2017)—in the team’s first game ever against the Jacksonville Icemen—the Royals’ attire will be a bit more ‘under the radar’ as we honor our nation’s veterans and active-duty service-personnel, who we’ll salute with a special mini-rally towel given out to the first 2500 fans courtesy of UGI Utilities.

Speaking of holiday celebrations, one of this season’s can’t miss extravaganza games, which will be held on Saturday, December 16, 2017, will be centered around the Christmas season when the Royals’ will don their “ugliest holiday sweaters ever” (which fans can purchase in an on-line auction) to take on the Wheeling Nailers. Fans will be encouraged that night to leave something in the building—a stuffed animal, which they can throw on the ice in our annual Teddy Bear Toss when the Royals score their first goal—and to take something (in addition to “The Force”) home with them—a bright and shiny Christmas ornament courtesy of Met-Ed.

The holiday season will offer plenty of hockey action this season for Royals’ fans, as the team plays no fewer than seven home games in the latter stages of December, which will include our annual tribute to the Royals’ National Hockey League neighbor (and affiliate), the Philadelphia Flyers, in our ‘A-Philly-Nation’ Night on Thursday, December 28, 2017. The Royals will follow that up on Sunday, December 30, 2017, by paying tribute to another hero—albeit of the more ‘nation-wide’ variety—when the team will don special “Captain America” jerseys.

As the season turns towards the new year, the Royals will turn our attention to honoring royalty in a couple of different ways. First, we’ll welcome true royalty in the form of wrestling legend Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler on Friday, January 5, 2018. The next night we’ll ring in the Fifth Anniversary of the Royals 2013 Kelly Cup Championship with a special limited edition puck giveaway courtesy of the Berks-Schuylkill Oil Heat Association.

You’ll want to have your inter-planetary dancing shoes on for our next big night can’t miss extravaganza because the annual Penn State University-THON event will be held on January 20, 2018, when the Royals trust the Force will be with us in Star-Wars themed specialty jerseys, which will be auctioned to raise funds for the largest student run philanthropy in the world, THON, which is dedicated to eradicating childhood cancer.

After that, you can kick off your dancing shoes and change into your best heels for our “Hockey and Heels” Weekend, when we celebrate purple-pride with the ladies in a weekend of games dedicated to the “fairer” side of our sport. Things will kick off on Friday, February 16, 2018, when the Royals face the Cincinnati Cyclones on Prince and Princess Night when the ladies can accent their purple-pride with a pink knit hat, which will be given out courtesy of Sweet Street Desserts.

That pink hat will certainly look appropriate the next night when we host our Eleventh Annual Pink in the Rink celebration when the real men of the Royals put on, well, their real favorite color to take on the Brampton Beast in front of what should be another sell-out crowd. Of course, the team’s specialty jerseys from the PIR game will be auctioned to raise funds for local causes dedicated to the support of persons battling breast cancer. That night, the ladies can complete their weekend ensemble with a pink scarf once again presented by Sweet Street Desserts.

The moms in our lives will be happy on that Sunday (February, 18, 2018), too, when the whole family will get together for one of our annual Faith and Family events and we’ll honor the Girl Scouts of America with a Royals’ t-shirt giveaway for kids fourteen years of age and younger. The kids will look great in that t-shirt skating with the team in one of our three Post-Game Skates with the Players that we will have this year courtesy of Body Zone Sports and Wellness Center.

Not surprisingly perhaps, one of the most active nights of the year will be the night we honor one of the ‘most-active’ Royals in team history, Yannick Tifu. On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2018, we’ll not only make Yannick the next addition to the Diamond Credit Union Royals’ Wall of Honor, we’ll also raise his ‘Number 10’ to the rafters, as he becomes only the second player in the seventeen year history of the team to have his number retired. Yannick might also be called upon that night to face another all-time-great—Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man—who himself has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

As if that won’t be enough fireworks, the March 17 extravaganza will also see the re-birth of one of the all-time favorite promotions in Royals’ history—St. Hattrick’s Night—when some lucky fan could walk out of the building $10,000 richer if a Royal were to hit for the trifecta that night. And, of course, even if a Royal doesn’t score three goals, we don’t want anyone to leave the Arena empty handed, so we’ll give a Yannick Tifu Poster to the first 5000 fans and all season ticket holders will get a special limited edition Tifu puck.

A couple of Yannick Tifu’s championship teammates—who also just happen to make up the Royals’ current coaching staff, Kirk MacDonald and Patrick Wellar—will be honored with a special limited-edition puck a bit later in March, when we will tone things down just a bit and host our Autism Awareness game on Saturday, March 24, 2018.

As has been a tradition for the past sixteen seasons, the Royals will close out our regular season with a tribute to our most important asset, you—the fans—with Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, April 7, 2018, when we’ll give out everything we can, including the shirts off the players’ backs to our season ticket holders.

Please note that the 2017-18 Reading Royals’ Promotional Calendar is regularly evolving with new events, giveaways, and appearances. Please check regularly for updates, changes and revisions, as all promotions, dates and giveaways are subject to change.

2017-18 READING ROYALS CALENDAR OF

GAME NIGHT PROMOTIONAL EVENTS, APPEARANCES and SPECIAL GIVEAWAYS

(Limited Availability Giveaways in Parentheses) (All Events and Giveaways are Subject to Change)

Saturday, October 21, 2017 (v Adirondack Thunder): Special 4:00 pm Opening Face-off; FREE Pre-Game Block Party on Penn Street featuring the Uptown Band, and the introduction of “Royals Have Talent” with Cody Tyler; Game Night: Purple-Pride T-Shirt Giveaway for Every Person Entering Santander Arena courtesy of Met-Ed, a First Energy Company; Cocalico Middle School Band and Chorus to Perform America’s National Anthem; Youth Cheer Night.

Saturday, December 30, 2017 (v Adirondack Thunder): Captain America Night; Team wears specialty Captain America Jerseys (Available Through MeiGray Group Game Worn Jerseys – Details to be Released at a Later Date).